Chromatin accessibility and modification is a hallmark of regulatory DNA, the study of which led to the discovery of cis-regulatory elements (CREs). Here, we characterize chromatin accessibility, histone modifications and sequence conservation in 13 plant species. We identified thousands of putative CREs and revealed that distal CREs are prevalent in plants, especially in species with large and complex genomes. The majority of distal CREs have been moved away from their target genes by transposable-element (TE) proliferation, but a substantial number of distal CREs also seem to be created by TEs. Finally, plant distal CREs are associated with three major types of chromatin signatures that are distinct from metazoans. Taken together, these results suggest that CREs are prevalent in plants, highly dynamic during evolution and function through distinct chromatin pathways to regulate gene expression.

中文翻译：

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植物调控元件的流行、进化和染色质特征。

染色质可及性和修饰是调控 DNA 的一个标志，对其的研究导致了顺式调控元件 (CRE) 的发现。在这里，我们描述了 13 种植物的染色质可及性、组蛋白修饰和序列保守性。我们确定了数千个推定的 CRE，并揭示远端 CRE 在植物中普遍存在，尤其是在具有大而复杂基因组的物种中。大多数远端 CRE 已通过转座因子 (TE) 增殖远离其靶基因，但大量远端 CRE 似乎也是由 TE 产生的。最后，植物远端 CRE 与三种主要类型的染色质特征相关，这些特征与后生动物不同。总之，这些结果表明 CRE 在植物中很普遍，